It makes me nervous that I have been excited for so long about this trip. Travel is all about managing expectations, right? The trip was better than I had hoped (at least for this first part of the week… Vegas… was… a great deal). Let’s begin at the beginning.
We celebrated Hailey’s 12th Birthday on Friday. We were all ready to go when we woke Saturday morning. I had packed everything on Thursday so that we wouldn’t be distracted. Hailey’s first half soccer match was attended before we headed to the airport. We flew direct from Charlotte to Las Vegas and arrived in the early afternoon local time. We drove 2.5 hours to Virgin, Utah, where we rented a car, and then stopped at Whole Foods to stock up on snacks.
We arrived late in the afternoon and settled into our tents. We then enjoyed a relaxing evening and dinner at camp, before retiring to bed at an appropriate hour. Our first day was going to be busy.
We woke up very early on Sunday, thanks to the time shift. We dressed up, packed snacks and drove 20 minutes to the Zion Visitor Center. There are no cars allowed on the main road of the national parks, only shuttles. The shuttle was not in line so we got on and started our first hike.
We missed our stop because we were still half asleep. We enjoyed a long ride with a kind bus driver, until we reached The Grotto. It took us about 5 hours to get from Angel’s Landing. You can read about our Angel’s Landing full experience here.
As we retold our story, we rode the shuttle up to Zion Lodge for a quick-service counter lunch of burgers and sandwiches. We hiked up Weeping Rock after lunch before heading back to camp to relax.
After showering, we went to the main area, where we ordered drinks and dinner, played Jenga and tetherball and watched the sun set on a wonderful day.